Indeed, back in 1922, Lord Reith said that the values of the BBS were to “inform, educate, and entertain”; not “be non-partisan”. This was made especially clear during the Miners’ Strike.
BBC won't broadcast Attenborough episode on destruction of wildlife over fear of right-wing backlash
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Before my time - was this saying the BBC was impartial or partial during the strikes ?
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It was very pro-government. To the extent that it deliberately distorted a report on a police attack on striking miners to make it look like the strikers instigated the violence instead of the police, and throughout the strike, they covered up police violence and acted as a mouthpiece for the government’s.views
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Lots of food for thought in this thread. Something I saw in a related Twit thread got me digging…
Countryfile is a weekly BBC show about rural, agricultural and environmental matters in the UK. It also has an associated website and print magazine.
They have an article on the Wild Isles series, including info about when to watch:
In the Wayback Machine, this page has been updated 4 times. Original text from December 21st 2022 was:
How many episodes of Wild Isles are there?
There are five episodes in total - an introductory episode about British wildlife, and one each focused on Britain’s four key habitat types: woodland, grassland, marine and freshwater.
Same text on December 25th. Then March 1st 2023 it shows:
How many episodes of Wild Isles are there?
There are six episodes in total - an introductory episode about British wildlife, followed by one each focused on Britain’s four key habitat types – woodland, grassland, marine and freshwater – with a concluding episode focused on conservation efforts in Britain, called Saving Our Wild Isles.
On March 10th it was reverted to the original text, and there were 3 more captures yesterday - suggesting some furious reviewing of the page was going on.
Countryfile receive all their info from the BBC. So yes, the BBC did plan to show the episode live on air - then made a u-turn, no matter what they claim.
ETA relevant peeps: @mallyboon @rbc67 @anothernewbbaccount
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I saw the wonderful Self Esteem at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith Odeon last night, and support artist Bimini led the crowd chant:
A really age and gender diverse crowd of ~5000 people, speaking with one voice. Wonderful to be part of, and makes me hopeful that there will be more pushback against the bad actors out there.
At the same gig, the encore was a thing of beauty:
“I’m Fine”:
The cheers after the encore nearly took the roof off.
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That does suggest some back and sideways pedalling. But the change in the number of episodes from 5 to 6 does ft in with earlier statements. There were 5 and they commissioned a 6th.
BUT - none of this is about how many will be broadcast
They’ll all be on iPlayer, but only 5 will be broadcast.
Countryfile web maintainers are probably none the wiser and just reacting to directives from above, where someone probably hasn’t bothered to check whether the Countryfile site has the word broadcast in it, assumed it has, and has fed them umpteen changes as the winds of senior management have swung around according to their fears of attack from the right-wing elements in the farming community and those MPs whose ears they have.
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Thanks for that. We need as many reminders as we can get that BS artists hollering “fake news” about any reality that contradicts their ideology of greed and selfishness are in the minority.
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I don’t know about earlier versions, but in the current one the section on the number of episodes was preceded by one entitled "When is Wild Isles [the series as a whole] on TV?'. The same section also mentions that the series, again as a whole, will be available on iPlayer.
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A fair point. Still seems fishy though. If you check the wiki about Attenborough’s previous series work for the BBC, you’ll see that the series progression of themed episodes about different habitats, ending with an episode covering human interactions (and often themes like habitat destruction) has been used before - ‘A Perfect Planet’, ‘The Green Planet’, ‘Frozen Planet II’. This series would seem to fit that mould perfectly.
These series were all broadcast on BBC first, then online. Given how much money they cost this is unsurprising (and yes, I do appreciate that this last episode was collaboratively funded).
But since this one is specific to the British Isles, and large landowners here love their grouse shooting… and may vote a particular way… well… 
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So many (bad) reasons and justifications.
“It’s not as bad as they say.”
“I don’t trust those experts, they’re just scaremongering.”
“Things are always changing anyway, it’ll be okay.”
“I have to think of my kids / my stock portfolio / my company / my voters first!”
“If there’s trouble, it’ll happen when I’m dead already, so why care?”
Edit: I think the most common explanation is fear. People go in denial, because climate change, wildlife destruction etc. are huge issues that affect us all, and we all are responsible to varying extent. For an awful lot of people, who feel they are powerless to do anything meaningful anyway, it’s easiest to just refuse to engage, and think everything’s okay. A lot of these people get mad if they’re reminded of the reality of these issues, because it forces them to face their fear and justifications, and that’s unpleasant.
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The phrase “There are six episodes in total” kind of implies that at one point, the episode in question was supposed to be the 6th episode, and not just some supplementary, additional thing that just happens to have been made by exactly the same people. Most people would assume that when there are 6 episodes of something, all 6 are going to be broadcast.
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Let’s not forget the reason that people believe these things is because the oil industry, their lobbyists, their shills, propagandists, political allies and general useful idiots have spent half a century pouring vast amounts of money and effort into manufacturing the illusion of a divided scientific consensus where there is none.
There’s that.
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Great digging!
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Sorry, I should have been clearer. The BBC was very partial during the miners strike; and during Scottish Independence too.
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Oh aye, during and since the indy referendum. The SNP have been the third largest party in Westminster since 2015, you would not know it from the UK-wide media in general, but especially the BBC.
I can’t remember what the exact figures are for the number of Nigel Farage appearances on Question Time, relative to the number of appearances by SNP MPs or MSPs, but it’s something ridiculous.
The leader of a couple of parties which have never had any more than 2 MPs at any given time, and even then they won their seats as tories then defected, vs a party which, at times, has held upwards of 50 Westminster seats.
If you asked the great British public who the third largest party were over the last 8 years, more of them would’ve likely said UKIP or the Brexit party than the SNP.
Fiona Bruce has been an absolute dick whenever anyone from the SNP does make an appearance too.
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When you started saying “disproportionate airtime” my head went straight to Farage before I read that para.
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I have to disagree with your edit a little bit here. What you’re saying is definitely significant, sure. But if we’re essentially asking why people believe a falsehood (that climate change isn’t happening/isn’t that bad/exaggerated/is just a natural cycle/isn’t man made), and an inconceivably vast effort has been made, over the course of decades, to make that falsehood believable, then that above all else is the primary reason why the falsehood is believed.
There might be reasons why people want to believe the lies, and that’s very important to understanding how the lies are constructed and propagated, but first and foremost is the lying goddamn liers who told the lies. I feel that’s all too absent from so much discourse about climate change.
From the moment the oil companies’ own scientists found out what CO2 emissions were doing and were going to do, they started trying to figure out how to convince the public that the science didn’t say what it said, just like the tobacco industry before it, but with far, far worse consequences for everyone.
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The BBS and the BBC both
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They were so impartial during the Troubles that they dubbed over any Sinn Fein members with a different voice when they spoke on TV - including elected MPs (who never took their seats due to the party’s abstention policy, but still elected by the people)
It’s been satirised brilliantly by British and Irish comedians both at the time
And in retrospect
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The BBC had no choice. In 1988, the government banned the broadcast of any Sinn Fein politicians under a provision of The Broadcasting Act 1981.
Voicing them with actors allowed them (and ITN) to broadcast interviews with Sinn Fein and remain inside the law.
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